--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "suzmccarth" <suzmccarth@...> wrote:

>
> --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
> <richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
>
> > Given all these issues, I wonder whether it does make sense to think
> > of Thai as an alphasyllabary. The syllables have to be treated as
> > units, but they do not leap out at the reader as separate units.
>
> Is Thai taught as a syllabary - with a syllable chart? This may
> sound a bit mechanistic, but in the scripts that I am thinking of -
> Cree, Tamil, Hangul, Amharic, the script is usually taught as a
> syllabary. This is because the syllables have become indivisible or
> opaque or not linearily organized.

As there are 44 (practically only 42) consonants by 32 (compound or
simple) vowel symbols for 'open' syllables, it can't quite be done
like that, but some of the approaches come close, perhaps more on the
Italian model. I should ask, as these approaches only leak through to
the teaching of adult foreigners. What's made me more aware of them
is a small Thai textbook for the Lanna Tai script. Certainly
individual row or columns of such a table leak through. Some of this
is due to the tone changes as one goes through in a row or column -
short 'open' syllables have a low or high tone, while the other 'open'
syllables have a mid or rising tone. The 32 vowels include some
phonetic VC compounds, the symbols for /am/, /ai/ (two different
symbols, though one is used for only 20 words) and /au/. There are no
printed ligatures messing such tables up.

Another 2 planes (by tone mark) are possible, though some of the
combinations seem unlikely, and the last 2 planes are only possible
for the 9 middle consonants (unsapirated stops).

There are other compound and simple vowel symbols that, with rare
exceptions, only occur in closed syllables.

Richard.